By Elizabeth Prata
A post on Instagram by the ever-solid Doreen Virtue about channeling (it’s here) reminded me that in 2011 I had written a series of essay examining what channeling (or ‘automatic writing’) is, and had examined three highly popular books that these seemingly Christian authors had published. I’ve revived and updated those essays here, I also shortened them, and split them up to examine each author in turn.
Neale Donald Walsch wrote “Conversations with God” (1995), William P. Young wrote “The Shack” (2007), and Beth Moore wrote “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things” (2002). All three were Christian bestsellers. All three are unholy.
Automatic writing is when a writer clears his mind, gives his will over to another entity from the supernatural realms, and allows his hand to be used as a transcriber, thereby allowing the entity to produce the work, and not himself through his own mind or consciousness. Not even the scriptures were generated in this manner. The Bible’s authors received inspiration but were mentally and emotionally present and the Holy Spirit used their mind and personality to write. The authors didn’t zone out and become robots as another entity produced the works.
One thing these automatic writers who channel these supernatural entities people all have in common is they all had a Christian-ish background. The second thing they all had in common was abuse, parents who were distant either physically or emotionally, and/or trauma of severe kinds that usually resulted in a deep depression throughout adulthood. It was in the depths of their depressions at the bottom of their turmoil that they began to experience the “call” from the other side. Here are their stories. Today, we look at William P. Young of “The Shack” fame.
William P. Young was born to missionary parents and within a stone age cannibalistic tribe that his parents were evangelizing in New Guinea. At age six he returned to Canada and attended 13 different schools before graduating and then attending Bible College. He earned his religion undergraduate degree and then went on to seminary.
In his case, Young says “sexual abuse was probably the most fundamental building block of my shack.” When he was a young child, he said, tribal people near his parents’ missionary station abused him, and he experienced more abuse by older students at the boarding school he was sent to at age 6.
At age 38 he had an affair with his wife’s best friend that nearly cost him his marriage. He became homeless after trying to keep up and working three jobs. Financially insolvent due to bad decisions, Young says the book “The Shack” was born from the pain he was feeling inside while at the same time recognizing he was a religious performer. During that time (in 2004) Young became a Universalist.
Universalists believe everyone will be saved whether they have repented or not.
In this essay titled Paul Young and Universal Reconciliation, the author states, “Paul Young told me he is a “hopeful universalist.” He believes that our loving God sent His Son to die for every single sinner without exception. One day God will effectually reconcile every sinner to Himself. Paul uses the term “hopeful” universalism because he understands that the Scriptures speak of judgment, but Paul is “hopeful” that even in judgment, the love of God will eventually bring the sinner being judged to love for Jesus Christ.”
No.
Young’s early trauma informed his personality, decisions, and eventually, his religion. He said he became a perfectionist performer in order to survive. “Young says he became ‘a perfectionist performer with a persona that you present to the world covering up an ocean of shame. I’m the oldest. “I took the brunt of some of the negative dynamics in our family at the time. A lot of those things fed into becoming a perfectionist performer. I held it together until I was thirty-eight years old, and then it all blew apart thanks to the grace of God, and I started an eleven year process of dismantling everything and putting it all back together.“
So, he deconstructed. Or apostatized.
Even though Young had earned an undergraduate degree in religion (or because of it) and had started seminary, Young emerged from his education and his introspection with a false view of God.
Like Walsch in the previous essay, with no born-again faith underpinning his worldview, Young sought relief for his messy life of trauma and heartbreak in all the wrong places.
For the 11 years Young worked through his understanding of “the nature and character of God.” By the end of 2004 he had come to “peace with myself and peace with my sense of who I believe God to be”—a process he condensed to a weekend in the book. His writing process is l described in his own words here:
“I had this interaction with Divine Love, however you wanna do it. I have a very conversational relationship with God, and on, on my dad’s 80th birthday, he stepped on one of my [emotional] mines, you know, that I didn’t know were my mines – he just didn’t live up to one of my expectations and blew stuff up. And so I’m pissed off and I go for a walk, and I can sense the presence of God next to me.” (Source)
“And I, I feel an arm around my shoulder, you know, and it’s, we have this little conversation and, and I hear Love say, “you know, you know Paul, your dad hasn’t known how to be a father for 60 years. He’s not suddenly gonna figure it out. And I went, “yeah, I know that. I know that.” And then I hear in the inside voice, I hear, “if it’s okay with you, would you let me be all that and more?” (Source).
On his creative process-
“I had this experience — and this was early when The Shack had just begun to take off — and I woke up in the middle of the night — and it’s never happened to me before and it’s never happened since — and I was literally caught in a waterfall. It’s like I was sitting up in bed in a waterfall of creative ideas. And about an hour into this I thought to myself, ‘I need to get up and write this down,’ and it all stopped. And I really felt “the voice.” You know, to me it’s the Holy Spirit, who just said, ‘Isn’t that what you always do? You don’t trust that creativity is a river,’ and I said you’re right, I don’t trust, and I said I’m not going to live like that anymore. And immediately the waterfall started again for an hour until I fell asleep. (Source)
Did the Holy Spirit speak directly to Young? No.
The people I’m looking at here, Young, Walsch, and Moore, all had severe and long-term trauma in their lives. They were horrifically abused, and/or were abandoned, fell into depressions, were attempting to claw their way out of some kind of traumatizing pain and a broken-down life.
In the cases I read about, and they are anecdotal to be sure, none of the people said, “I was having a tremendously satisfying career, a strong marriage, and I felt joyful and grateful to God, when I suddenly felt the call from the other side…” Nope. In all the cases, the automatic writers were at their most vulnerable, and at their lowest point of life, had wavering faith.
When we are at our most vulnerable is when we are at our most vulnerable. It sounds redundant but it is a truism that when we are wrestling with why bad things happen to us we mix our sorrow with anger against God, that is when the spirits come. And of course by that I mean if one is not a born-again believer, it’s the demons, satan’s crew who comes.
Picture the wounded young gazelle on the African savannah, and lions approaching.
In the cases of our writers, many of them felt a sense of restoration after being contacted from the other side. When we’re down, we all want comfort. Young and Walsch have said that they felt restored through the process of writing these things about God. I believe Moore uses her writings and her talks on tv and at conferences as a therapy session, as I have stated before. What person suffering from trauma, pain, and depression wouldn’t want to respond to a whisper in their ear that ‘god’ can and will take the pain away? That they are a special person and the ‘voice’ will give personal, secret, new thoughts and ideas to you, you special person?
But we must guard our heart.
Pride is the root of these automatic writings, with the person willingly participating in the notion that they are special enough to have been contacted by ‘the other side’ directly. Like Apostle Paul was, or Elijah.
We live in a world that is actually satan’s. (2 Cor 4:4). We need strength to deal with the crafty cunning schemes of the satanic system that is all around us. God gave us armor but the armor does not do any good if it is in the closet. (Eph 6:10-19).
Here is an example of the craftiness of the devil’s schemes. William Young is talking about his writing process. He said “In the first draft there was more religious language. God was actually quoting Scripture, which kinda didn’t work. In the re-write I was actually able to embed Scripture in the conversation almost in a way that people don’t pick it up.” So Young actually watered down the scripture, which we know is the only language that penetrates hearts and reveals God. But for Young, ‘It didn’t work.’
Do you think that God would send words to a person about Himself and then inspire the author to hide them so they are ‘not picked up’? Once you divorce the scripture from its source you can then change the wording subtly.
Guard your heart, stay close to God, and if you hear a ‘voice’ reject it as satan’s and seek God’s through His word.
Further Resources
Tim Challies’ review of The Shack or here
How do Christian authors end up channeling spirits and producing books from them? Pride
the-end-time.org 